Global Interdependence, Just Vaccine Allocation, and Compensatory Justice: A New Model

During the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous models were offered for how scarce vaccine resources should be distributed. Proposed vaccine distribution models generally were divided between nationalist models, which give preference to nationals, and cosmopolitan models, which ignore national boundaries. More defensible international vaccine distribution program proposals incorporate ethical considerations from both cosmopolitanism and nationalist models. To date, however, proposed models have insufficiently considered how global interdependence has resulted in economic and ecological harms by high-income countries (HICs) against low-to-middle income countries (LMICs). Because these harms create health burdens for the populations of LMICs, compensatory justice should impact distribution determinations. This paper argues that adequately factoring in global interdependence, compensatory justice, as well as the disproportionate impact of pandemics on LMICs, just vaccine distribution may require prioritizing LMIC populations over those of HICs.